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To my understanding that would make God the author of sin, and I don't believe that. As I look at verses such as, "come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest", all of the invitations, "now we urge you, be reconciled to God", these all become disengenuous if God has already determined everything. I don't see God speaking disengenously, which is in reality dishonestly.
I don't understand how this concept fits with your view of God's determinism. No one chooses, actually, right? Hasn't God already chosen for them?
You are trying to have it both ways.
This is answered here,
The transcendent creator, who is authoring my story, wills that I believe and trust in him.
Just by saying so?
You transcendant Creator, in His sovereign will, has decreed, and it cannot be overturned . . . you must choose.
Why not? Why can't both be true at the same time? There is no logical reason why a transcendent creator can't do both: author Adam's choices and then punish him for those choices. God is not sinful for writing a story that has sin in it, is he?
Somehow my computer got messed up so if I already answered this I apologize.
No, not regardless of His righteous commandment; In view of his righteous commandment.
Writing a story is not the same thing as programing a computer. God's call to repent is part of the story just as much as those who repent or refuse to repent.
In order to see it another way, one must come to grips with God's transcendent nature. And the only thing in reality that is similar to God's transcendence is the author's transcendence over the characters in his novel. If I wrote a story about a couple getting engaged, not only would I write that the man proposed to his lover, but that he got down on his knees, showed her the ring, and I would describe the look on her face. The entire story is in my hands: the man's love, the woman's love, the ring, the knee, the venue, everything. Authors don't program responses, they simply write them.
Remember, his statements are also part of the story; They come in the form of an oracle or a theophany. His oracles and our responses to them are all part of the story.
Writing a story with sin in it? That sounds like the sanitized version. Either it was Adam who decided to commit sin, or God that decided Adam would commit sin.
What you describe is not transcendence. The assumption of your objection is that both actor and audience are conceptually the same. But in reality and using your analogy of the play, God is neither the actor nor the audience. God is the playwright. The playwright decides the situation, the conditions, the actions, and the speech of the characters. The playwright decides what is said and what is done. All of it.
Yes, his expressed will is that all should repent. Nonetheless, Paul argues that God chooses whom to save. He also argues that God's choice is based neither on the will of man nor on the actions of man. (Romans 9:16) My choice to repent directly reflects God's prior choice to save me. The order of salvation is this. First God chooses me, then I choose God.
But Jesus himself said it is the will of God that whoever sees and believes will have eternal life (John 6)
I'm not using the analogy of a writer of stories. I don't think it fits.
Everyone born is an unsaved sinner. So start with the proper perspective on sin.
